No AML Checks For Most Transfers To Unhosted Crypto Wallets, EU Policymakers Decide

A Wednesday meeting secured a final deal on anti-money laundering legislation for crypto transfers and largely overturned a proposal from the EU Parliament to impose laundering checks on all payments to private wallets. CoinDesk reports: The final proposals will mean customer identity needs to be verified for even the smallest crypto transfers, if it's between two regulated digital wallet providers -- but payments to unhosted private wallets will largely be left out of laundering checks. EU lawmakers and government representatives have been meeting over the last three months to hash out a political deal on the bill, which was introduced in July 2021 by the European Commission. Two sources leaving the meeting, who asked not to be named, told CoinDesk a deal had been reached on the legislation after just over an hour of talks.

Just under an hour following the publication of this article, EU lawmaker Ondrej Kovarik confirmed the provisional deal in a tweet, saying that it 'strikes the right balance in mitigating risks for fighting money laundering in the crypto sector without preventing innovation and overburdening businesses.' Outside the meeting room, Kovarik told CoinDesk that negotiators had found a 'good balance' that would not prevent innovation. 'It will allow the further development of crypto in Europe,' Kovarik said.

For the rules on transfers to unhosted wallets, Kovarik said the final result had 'moved quite far from the initial proposal of the European Parliament' -- something likely to be met by a sigh of relief by many in the industry. Kovarik said those unhosted wallet rules would only apply when transfers were made to a person's own private wallet, and only when the value was over 1,000 euros ($1,052). Lawmakers and governments overturned European Commission plans to exempt small transactions, arguing that price volatility and the ability to break up payments into smaller chunks would make it unworkable for crypto. Further reading: Crypto Rules To Make Europe a Global Leader As Prices Plunge (The Associated Press)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.